Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Biography

Tiger Pataudi, as he was fondly called, was the Nawab of Bhopal. He was born on 5th January, 1941. His nickname ‘Tiger’ came from his fierce and aggressive personality. At the age of 21, he became the youngest Indian to captain the Test team, a record which he still holds. Pataudi played his entire International career with a single eye, still timing and connecting the ball as impeccably as anyone else.

Background

At the age of 16, Pataudi started his first-class career, representing Sussex in the year 1957. He even represented Delhi in first class matches until 1966 before being drafted into the Hyderabad team.

Debut

In 1961, Pataudi met with an accident which resulted in him losing sight in his right eye. However, he trained rigorously to play with a single eye. Just six months after the tragic accident, he was called up to represent India in December 1961. He made his debut against England, scoring 13 and 61 in the two innings of his debut in Delhi.

Rise to Glory

After his brilliant match winning knock of 103 in the Madras test against England, he was handed over the vice-captain’s duties for the series against the mighty Windies in 1962. He was made the captain of the side very shortly as Nari Contractor suffered an injury.

Captaincy

He captained the side 40 times in his 46 appearances, 19 of which were in a losing cause and the same number of games produced no result. India won 9 matches under his captaincy, one of which was the famous first overseas Test victory against New Zealand. He lost the captaincy to Ajit Wadekar in 1970.

Records

He was awarded the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1962. He scored 6 centuries on his way to 2793 international runs. He holds the record for facing the most number of balls (554) in a single test batting at number 6.